The Kids Are All Right
by AlwaysAddicted
Summary: His life was extraordinary enough when he was just a scientific advisor and researcher at UNIT, as well as an ordinary teenager. A life of adventure and aliens and the doctor were really not that necessary.


Glancing a bit sideways, he saw his sister acting suspiciously: head lowered, curled up in herself slightly, attention absorbed. A curiosity, and admittedly a slight worry, bubbled inside him. He sat up.

After a thorough observation, he could think of nothing to explain her odd stature. He resorted to more drastic measures. Trying hard not to make a noticeable amount of noise, he carefully ripped up a corner of his notebook. After cropping it up into a small ball of paper, he aimed it at her sister, seated two rows in front and one to the left of him.

He missed. And not a little bit.

"Mr. Stewart," said Ms. Oswald, tossing the tiny ball which had hit her directly on her forehead back at him, "care to explain yourself?"

It took him a moment too long to spit out a carefully thought up excuse.

"And Ms. Stewart," Ms. Oswald turned to his sister, "what's that you just hid in your bag?"

Before addressing their teacher, his sister turned to him to give him a glare with an intensity that might have scared him just a little bit. She then took out the book from her bag, in which she was absorbed before he'd decided to act like a moron.

Ms. Oswald walked to her desk and picked up the paperback. "Well, I can't be mad at you for reading Harry Potter, or what kind of English teacher would I be? But please, do try and pay attention."

"Yes, Ms. Oswald." said Ruby, not exactly with a sigh but something close.

Ms. Oswald walked back to the front of the class, her sister's book still in hand. He was about to resume drawing, without much talent, in the back of his notebook.

"Mr. Stewart, I'm still waiting for your explanation."

He dropped his pencil as if it were on fire, but didn't look up straight away. Eventually he just said: "I wanted to pass a note."

"You know that means detention, right?" Surprisingly, she sounded sympathetic.

He nodded dejectedly. It was a long time coming anyways.

Ms. Oswald assigned him to read the next passage of the book they were on. When his turn was over and she picked someone, he noticed he had absolutely no clue what he'd just read. With an absolute lack of motivation, and a strong desire to graffiti his notebook with awful doodles, he flipped back to the first page and started reading. All the while he tried his best to ignore the questioning gazes his sister kept shooting back.

By the time the bell rang he'd caught up with the class and contributed to the discussion a total of zero times. With an odd sense of victory he closed Clockwork Orange and walked out the classroom.

Ruby immediately walked up to him. "What is it with you?"

He resolutely walked out the class and to his locker. His sister trailed after him. "How did you manage to get detention?" she continued. "You do know detention is the last thing we need right now?"

"Yes, I am aware." he said, slipping a great portion of his own frustration into the comment. "I'll sort something out."

"You can't call her." she said, grabbing his shoulder and turning him around so he was forced to face her.

He laughed, a bit of something snide creeping into the chuckles. "Why not? I could call her now and it would all be sorted out. Do you know how stupid it is _not_ to call her?"

She looked a bit taken aback by the uncharacteristic hostility he was directing towards her. "You know why you can't."

"I know why you don't want me to but I don't see why I can't." he adjusted the strap of his bag which was slowly lengthening because of the weight of his books.

"So you want her to act like she's our mother?" When he hesitated to respond she continued: "We can't rely on her, Lewis. You and I have to make due on our own."

He sighed. "I guess so." He continued his path to his locker.

Ruby followed again. "Why did you throw the ball of paper in anyways?"

"I was trying to get your attention." he admitted quietly, disposing half his books in his locker.

She understood immediately. "I was just reading a book."

"Well I didn't know that."

"And I don't need you looking out for me." When he looked at her he could tell she still wanted to say something. After a few beats of odd silence she did. "I'm not your sister."

He watched his not-sister walking away. This day suddenly sucked a bit too much.

"Hey, mate." said Robert, snapping him out of the bout of melancholy that was about to hit him hard.

"Hey, what's up?" he responded.

"Heard you got detention." They started walking towards the cafeteria. Robert whistled. "First week! Sucks to be you mate."

"Very funny. I'm glad you find a joy in my misfortune." he said, trying his best to emulate his not-sister's deathly glare.

Robert only laughed. "Serves you right! With the amount of mischief you've committed last year I'm surprised the school didn't implement the no nonsense rule with you earlier!"

"All of that was hardly my fault." he said. "And the no nonsense rule is nonsense anyways."

"That's what all those subjected to the no nonsense rule say." said Chrissie, already seated at the table they were just joining with their trays of food.

"No nonsense rule?" asked Laura.

"It's this thing the school does when someone's been acting out of line too often." said Robert, seating himself perhaps a little closer than is considered normal. "The one in question will get detention for literally any little thing they consider out of line."

"And with literally any little thing, we mean literally any little thing. Josh once got a two-hour detention for saying 'knob', but like to a friend in a normal bantering type of way."

"Isn't that a little harsh?" asked Laura, eyes only on Robert.

"My point!" Lewis piped up.

"Didn't they have this sort of thing at your old school?" Chrissie said, shoving him in order to making him stop whining.

"At our old school it was a miracle if you managed to get detention." said Laura, smiling sadly.

"Sounds like one hell of a school." said Robert softly.

"It was." said Laura softly, looking him directly in the eye.

Chrissie and him shared a look and simultaneously rolled their eyes. Then simultaneously grinned in response to their simultaneous actions.

"So, can I copy your physics homework?" she asked, taking out a notebook one would've guessed was in use for at least a few months instead of just one school week.

"I didn't make it either."

"Why do I keep you around?"

Both got through their afternoon classes without getting caught for having made absolutely no homework in their first week. That didn't mean they were as successful in maintaining their sanity however, so when the glorious sound of the bell filled their ears they happily packed up to go home.

"Please all wait for me to finish this." Mr. Pink halted them.

"But sir, the bell went."

"The bell doesn't tell you when class has finished. The teacher does." he said in a monotonous and exasperated tone. "Cassandra, stop packing your back and sit back down!"

She sat down and continued to pack her bag but slightly slower. By the time he'd finished his explanation they were all packed and ready to go. No one bothered to copy the homework of the blackboard before leaving.

Right when the anticipating relief and excitement of a finished day of school on Friday started to take over, he realized he still had detention. He still had detention and he hadn't sorted something out like he'd promised Ruby.

He took out his phone and typed the number in, slowly. His finger hovered over the green call button. After a moment of hesitation he put the phone back in his pocket and walked to detention.

"Hello Mr. Stewart." Ms. Oswald greeted him when he walked in. He flopped down in one of the desks in the front. "You don't have to stay long."

He looked up surprised.

"You're a good kid Lewis. I know I'm one of the few who think so but I don't believe all those incidents last year were exactly your fault and your grades are fine so who am I to force you into doing nothing for an hour." she said, tone light. "And besides, it's Friday for me too. I really just want to go home now."

A strong sense of gratefulness filled him. This was why Ms. Oswald was definitely in his top 5 of most awesome teachers. "So, I'm guessing if anyone asks, I have to speak anything but the truth?"

She grinned a bit more manically than he was accustomed to seeing on his school teachers. "Student or teacher. If anyone asks: I was horrible and let you do nothing with your time for a whole hour. I accepted absolutely no nonsense."

"Thanks." He said, matching her grin. Then he bolted.

The shortest detention in history (which lasted a total of seven minutes) was long enough for the school to be almost deserted when he exited the classroom. He only spotted a few of the theatre kids who were already deeply engrossed in a game of tag and another kid carrying a load of crisps and chocolate bars. Presumably the latter was part of the Model of United Nations club. No teachers were in sight. It wasn't hard to keep his secret with Ms. Oswald a secret.

 _Finally free,_ he thought as he drove away from the school.

Half an hour later he parked his scooter next to the identical scooter which belonged to his sister-not-sister and grabbed for the phone which had been buzzing in his pocket for the last five minutes.

It was Chrissie. About two dozen messages and three missed phone calls. Just after scrolling through them she called again.

"I can't. I have work." he answered without greeting.

"Screw you. Why do you always have work." she sounded actually cross. Unsure, he stayed silent. "Robert wanted to go out but he's bringing Laura and I like Laura, I mean she's sweet and hilarious at times, but I don't want to be the third wheel so I need you to be there."

"Can't you ask the rest? Make it a thing with the whole group?" he asked.

"Yeah, I guess." She sounded resigned.

"I realize now that was shitty advise." he said immediately.

"No, you're right. We should be doing something with everyone anyways. It's the beginning of the schoolyear."

"And most of us haven't seen each other in a while so big chance there will be no disasters!" He walked the walk he walked almost every day without a thought, ending up in a tunnel deserted except for two men. With one glance at his identification they nodded and let him pass.

"Lewis, you're an arse. I hate you. Fuck yourself." said Chrissie, meaning every single word.

"You make me blush." he said, trying not to laugh.

"Okay, I'm doing this. I'm going to invite everyone," she gulped, "and hope no one gets killed."

"Good luck with that." he said, relieved he wasn't in her position.

"You're no friend of mine." She hung up.

Laughing out loud, he got in the lift. Without taking his eyes off the screen, he started an intense game of flappy bird. The sound of the lift was the cue to put it away, but he was doing so well that he procrastinated the termination of the game to the moment his sister shoved something in his face. He didn't even notice his new high score.

"You finished it?!" No his voice did not crack to an embarrassing height. Absolutely not.

"Our very own metamaterial, engineered to manipulate visual light-waves for the effect of optical cloaking!"

"Our very own invisibility cloak!"

"Our own invisibility cloak!"

They jumped up and down excitedly until they bumped into each other and Ruby almost fell onto the vat which stood in the corner and which they mustn't touch seeing as a piece of paper and some red crayon said that it was "Highly explosive." and "Could kill us all." and "Just don't touch it."

In an effort to not kill them all, Ruby diverted her downwards trajectory so that she flopped down next to it, almost painfully. Their laughter was hysterical.

"You could have killed us all!" he said with a huge smile.

"Yes!" she smiled also, pumping her fists into the air, still in her reclining position.

"You finished it!"

"Yes!"

"You were here perhaps five minutes before me?!"

"Yes!"

"How?!"

"I'm brilliant!"

"Yes, you are!"

Their laughter died down slowly. Ruby eventually got up from the floor. Lewis noticed his new high score on flappy bird and exclaimed: "New high score!". She high-fived him.

Malcolm walked in when they were almost back to respectably normal. "What are you two grinning about?"

"Ruby finished it."

Malcolm jumped up and down, less erratically than the two teens had a moment before, but with twice as much intensity to make up for it.

They celebrated by testing it out the whole afternoon and evening. They hid everything that was large enough for the humble piece of cloth to cover completely: their pencils, their phones, their engineering equipment, their heads. They tried it out in water (going to the actual swimming pool meant for military training – because it was a glorious day so none of them were in their right minds), they tried it out on the roof (with the other two watching from below) and they tried looking through their phones. Totally invisible. Everything they hid, in every condition.

Then Ruby suggested setting it on fire. Malcolm decided it was time for dinner.

It was eight o' clock by then. They sat in silence, all of them eating a salad they found in the fridge, making themselves comfortable amongst the mess of papers and equipment which together formed one of the many research labs of UNIT.

Malcolm engrossed himself in a sudoku and Ruby and Lewis were glued to the screens of their phones while they ate. His WhatsApp was full of messages. Reading back, he saw Chrissie's invite to everyone in the group to join at them at their usual club; the one everyone from school went to since it was the only one which ignored the law against underage drinking.

Seems like nobody had a good enough excuse to cancel. Person after person accepted the invitation.

Then there was the never-ending barrage of private messages from Chrissie.

 _I still live_

 _For now_

 _Laura and Robert are nowhere to be found I am so glad I brought the rest of the group_

 _Forget what I said I should have just stayed home this Friday night_

 _Why do I always need to go out on Friday night_

 _Show me your introverted ways, being extrovert sucks_

 _I hate everyone_

 _Could Tanya just cease to exist in my presence?_

 _Or just lose the ability to speak?_

 _And now they're fighting_

 _It's Tanya against Rebecca_

 _I can't promise you they'll make it out alive_

 _I'm not sure I want them to_

And guessing by the time, they hadn't even gone to the club yet.

Without answering to the messages he slipped his phone back in his pocket. His salad was finished. He was about to suggest they get back to work when she walked in.

"I don't pay all of you to just sit around." She stood in the doorway, leaning with her shoulder against the wall.

"We were just taking a dinner break, Mrs. Stewart." said Ruby, standing up.

"It's fine. Finish your dinner." she added a bit hastily. "I was about to tell you to take the rest of the evening off anyways. It's your first week back at school; I expect you'll have plans."

"No, it's fine. We can stay." Ruby didn't sit back down.

"Actually," Lewis started, "I kind of -"

Ruby glared her usual glare at him.

"Take the evening off, Ruby. That's an order." It didn't sound much like an order. She'd said it more exasperated than with authority.

"Yes, ma'am." Ruby was resigned nonetheless.

"I expect both of you back at the house before I wake up." And then she left again.

Together with Malcolm they took care of their routine detector checks before saying the older man goodbye and leaving in the same route they came.

"So what are your plans?" asked Ruby when they stood in the lift.

"I thought I might go to the club where Chrissie invited us, but I'm not sure I'll go yet." he answered, taking out his phone and scrolling through his missed messages.

"Well, if you're not desperate to go, why did you speak up?" She was annoyed.

"I was alright with the idea of a free Friday night. You weren't?"

"No, I actually enjoy working here." She crossed her arms and cocked her head.

"Don't do that. I enjoy it as much as you." She gave him that look. The lift halted and they walked out. "Look, I'm sorry I accepted Kate's offer. I know you don't like accepting favors from her."

"Just don't do it again." she said crossly. "So are you going to the club or not?"

"I don't know yet."

They walked through the tunnel, towards their scooters. There they both halted for a moment. "Let's go to the park." Ruby suggested.

"Why?"

She shrugged. Then he shrugged. And then they walked to the park. Once in the park they kept walking until they reached the adjacent playground. They sat on the swings, facing the reddening sunset.

"I really do love this work, you know." he said. "That metamaterial you finished; can you believe the sort of stuff we can make now?"

"It'll take some time to replicate it in the format you want to though."

"I know, but it's not that far now is it? Especially with the amount of hours we work there." he joked.

"You know, most scientists won't even accomplish what we did this past month – outside of school hours – in a full time job spanning ten years."

"It's brilliant."

They both grinned at the sunset. He held onto this moment. This feeling was what made him keep doing this job. The feeling of accomplishment. The feeling of doing something for the world. It felt like he was alive.

An immense gratitude filled him. There were very few people who got to see and experience the things he saw. There were few who knew the things he knew. Even fewer teenagers.

He thought to his friends at school. For two years he knew them now. And he was glad he had them, but at times like these he realized how different he was from them. He understood their worries. He got why Chrissie was in such a fit about taking the whole group to the club. He would have a fit himself. He had the same worries. But after school, he was researching and developing things beyond their imagination. And they were struggling to open their physics book.

He was glad that wasn't him though, even if it made him the odd one out sometimes. He was exploring a world that was almost magical and on top of that he was helping people. He wouldn't want to trade his life for any of theirs.

"You're right: it's awesome, but a Friday night off is rare." said Ruby after a long and stretched out silence. "We should enjoy that."

He nodded. "So we're going to the party?"

She nodded.


End file.
